Week of Jul 1
Just because Pride month is ending doesn't mean LA's cinemas are getting any less queer. On top of ongoing programs, two newly announced screening series will keep the Queer movies going strong all summer.
Queer Rhapsody Film Series
First up is the new film series Queer Rhapsody. Fifteen screenings, presented across five venues from July 19-28, Queer Rhapsody is a welcome new addition to LA's Queer cinema scene, presenting a variety of new films, including:
- Second Nature, a documentary about how queer the natural world is, narrated by Elliot Page;
- Queen of My Dreams, the feature film directing debut from Fawzia Mirza;
- Desire Lines, (Sundance Next Special Jury Award) a hybrid documentary about transmasculine sexuality from Jules Rosskam,
- seven short film programs, and more!
See the full program on the Queer Rhapsody website, and check out an interview with the programmers in the LA Times.
Tsai Ming-Liang Retrospective
American Cinematheque celebrates gay Malaysian-Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-Liang with a 14-film retrospective July 31 - Aug 17. Tsai's films are slow cinema, unhurried and interested in the smallest details of life in real time, and many are deeply inlaid with themes of queer longing. Tsai will be attending all screenings in person, joined by actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in all of Tsai's films.
If you don't know where to start, check out Goodbye, Dragon Inn or Days.
Tsai Ming-Liang Retrospective at American Cinematheque >
Playing This Week
Paris is Burning
Jul 6, 7:30pm, Academy Museum
This iconic documentary, filmed over seven years at the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City's ballroom scene, captures the end of a "Golden Age" drag scene--and introduced a whole lot of Queer vocabulary to mainstream audiences.
Young Soul Rebels
Jul 6, 2pm @ Academy Museum
Two disc jockeys have a friend’s murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.
Rope
Jul 5-7, 8:45pm @ New Beverly
Is this the original "be gay do crimes" movie? Though heavily censored, this one-take Hitchcock thriller (from out screenwriter Arthur Laurents) is based off the real-life Leopold and Loeb case, where two gay students killed a boy just to see if they could get away with it.
In Theaters Soon
Crossing (2024 Teddy Award Winner)
Opens July 19
Lia, a retired school teacher living in Georgia, hears from a young neighbour Achi that her long lost niece Tekla, a transgender woman, has crossed the border into Turkey. Hoping to bring Tekla home after a period of estrangement, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi to find her. Exploring the hidden depths of the city, they cross paths with a transgender lawyer called Evrim, who helps them in their search.
Check out the full site for all upcoming screenings and awesome special guests coming up this month!